happy prince

Illustration, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde

Lili Todorova

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a play, but he is too cold to write any more. Take him one of my eyes made of rare sapphires. He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and firewood, and finish his...

"So the Swallow picked out the great ruby from the Prince’s sword, and flew away with it in his beak over the roofs of the town. At last he came to the poor house and looked in. The boy was tossing feverishly on his bed ... In he hopped, and laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman’s thimble. Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy’s forehead with his wings. “How cool I feel,” said the boy, “I must be getting better”; and he sank into a delicious slumber."

Jane Ray

Oscar Wilde’s fairytale of a statue and a swallow is both beautiful and sad. The statue was once a happy prince with no idea that others could be sad. Now that he is a statue, high above the city, he can see that his happiness is not shared by all. A longer story with a moral message.

“The Happy Prince” by トヨダイズミ